[alt history] Officer of the Civil defense volunteer corps

         This is a figure that basically popped together by itself, it was acting more of a repository of items that I was planning on using than a bash but it slowly took shape. Originally I had intended to make him a Civil Guard in some sort of weird unit but I decided to go on a different route. As always and before the fake history a bit of real history. The Civil Guard in Puerto Rico was established in 1865 following the "Grito de Lares" (revolution attempt), from that point on the Civil Guard went through a few changes which most likely where local adaptions to needs and climate, they would continue to operate until 1898 at which point they formed part of the defenses of Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American war. After the war the civil guard was disbanded and it's members returned to Spain this however left a power vacuum on the island giving rise to banditry and other problems that the US troops had a problem dealing with due to cultural and language barriers among other problems.

On the other hand the Civil Defense was similar to those that popped up in the rest of the United States established in the 1930's it went through changes up until 1976. The civil defense continued to operate under the same name but now much different than how it was originally designed (now more centered around search & rescue), in 1999 the name was officially changed and the organic law was derogated changing the name to AEMEAD in spanish (Puerto Rico State Agency for Emergency and Disaster Management). Curiously enough the emblem continues to be the same, still using a map of PR with the civil defense logo in the middle and the agency's name around it.

    In 1910 Puerto Rico national police commander Alfonso Negroni suggested to the legislature and president of the republic that the civil guard be reinstated to it's original state, this suggestion however was considered to be a waste of money and resources since the police was already doing the same jobs with their own rural units. The idea wouldn't surface until the 1920's when it was again proposed but ignored, there was simply no need to have anything like it, the new army and navy where more than enough. By the 1930's the idea was again proposed but as a civilian militia comprised of volunteers that would carry out auxiliary duties for the armed forces and would free up professional  troops from meaningless tasks. In 1934 the first unit was created in San Juan, they received basic military training once a month and every two months they would be trained how to fire their rifles, many of the volunteers where often rural workers that had come to the cities, people with disabilities that where still capable of working but where unfit for military service and older men who where too old for the military.The civil defense had officers which where often retired policemen or veterans that had come from Europe many of whom where sometimes injured or too old for the military, the force was a nice way to gain some income though it was by no means a living wage.

One of the most curious things about the civil defense was that it was never part of the military reforms this allowed for the adoption of whatever worked or whatever an officer wanted his men to look like, while weapons where all the same with the exception of officers who bought their own.  Uniforms where perhaps the most curious, officers where known to dress in striking uniforms with colorful decorations, veterans adopted uniforms similar to those of their homelands or sought to recreate uniforms based around things they had seen. Uniforms for non officers where on the other hand utilitarian, one size fits all uniforms that the volunteers hemmed themselves or had someone do it for them, equipment used was also a mix match of commercially available items and whatever could be found on the markets or in most cases bags where ammunition could be placed if the need to arm the civil defense ever arose, for the most part the civil defense did not wield weapons, not even officers where allowed them unless it was absolutely needed.